Elon Musk tweeted that Amazon should be broken up after it initially rejected a book by a coronavirus skeptic who's peddled falsehoods

• Elon Musk tweeted that Amazon should be broken up after its publishing service initially refused to publish a book about the coronavirus.
• "Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!" Musk tweeted on Thursday.
• Musk was referring to the book "Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns" by Alex Berenson, an outspoken coronavirus skeptic who has become a darling among fringe conspiracy-theory groups.
• Both Musk and Berenson have posted falsehoods about the coronavirus on Twitter, such as the incorrect claim that children are at no risk.
• Amazon later said the book was removed in error and would be reinstated.

Elon Musk is calling for Amazon to be broken up after Amazon's publishing service refused to publish a book by a writer who has put forth conspiracy theories and falsehoods about the coronavirus.

"Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!" Musk tweeted, tagging Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and calling the situation "insane."

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2020

Musk's comments were in response to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service refusing to publish the writer Alex Berenson's book titled "Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns." Berenson tweeted a screenshot of an email he says he received from Amazon and said the company "censored" his book. The screenshot appeared to show the publishing division saying the book does not comply with its guidelines.

Amazon later told Business Insider the book was removed in error and would be reinstated.

Amazon has a history of allowing media that contains dubious scientific claims on its platform. Last year, it removed anti-vaccination movies from Prime Video, one of which had been labeled "Amazon's Choice." The company has also carried magazines containing anti-vaccine propaganda in its Whole Foods checkout aisles. More recently, Amazon has had to remove books about COVID-19 from its online store that contained conspiracy theories about the virus.

Berenson is a former reporter for The New York Times who has been outspoken about his theories that the response to the coronavirus outbreak has been overblown, despite evidence from experts. He has incorrectly said "kids, children, almost anybody under 30 is at no risk" of contracting COVID-19 and that the lockdowns themselves are the source of problems related to the virus.

Musk appears to agree with Berenson on many of his views, initially calling the response to the outbreak a "panic" and "dumb" and falsely saying that children are "essentially immune" to the virus. Musk has also pushed for reopening businesses throughout the country, describing stay-at-home orders as "fascist" and at first defying local ordinances to reopen his Tesla plant in California.

Musk has also described coronavirus death counts in the US as "misleading," despite the fact that experts estimate the US has undercounted deaths.